Black Widow (band)

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For other uses of the name "Black Widow", see Black Widow.

Black Widow was a progressive rock band that formed in Leicester, England in 1970. The band was mostly known for its early use of satanic and occult imagery in its music and stage act. The band is often confused with the better-known heavy metal band Black Sabbath, but the bands were only superficially similar.

The band originally formed in 1966 as Pesky Gee! with Kay Garrett (vocals), Kip Trevor (vocals, guitar & harmonica), Jim Gannon (guitar & vocals), Bob Bond (bass guitar), Clive Box (drums), Jess "Zoot" Taylor (organ & piano), Clive Jones (sax & flute). The band released one album for Pye Records as Pesky Gee!, 1969's Exclamation Mark, before Garrett left the band. The remaining band members continued on as Black Widow and released their debut album Sacrifice in 1970. Perhaps better known than their music was the band's use of occult references in their music and their live performances, which were made more controversial with the mock sacrifice of a nude woman. The band attracted further controversy by consulting infamous witch Alex Sanders for advice.

Controversy aside, Sacrifice reached as high as #34 on the UK album charts. [link] The band also performed at the Whitsun Festival at Plumpton, UK in 1970. [link] By 1971, the band had moved away from its darker occult imagery in an effort to gain a wider audience, which was unsuccessful. Black Widow released the self-titled Black Widow album in 1971 and Black Widow III in 1972 to general disinterest before being dropped by CBS Records. The band recorded a full-length album, Black Widow IV, later in 1972 without a recording contract but was not released due to the band breaking up shortly after replacing lead vocalist Kip Trevor with a vocalist known as Rick "E". The album was finally released in 1997 on the Mystic Records label. [link]

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